The mountains in spring are light and seductive as if smiling:
the mountains in summer have a blue-green colour
which seems to be spread over them;
the mountains in autumn are bright and tidy as if freshly painted;
the mountains in winter are sad and tranquil as if sleeping.

enjoying the mountains, playing in the mountains
..... yama asobi 山遊、yama isami 山いさみ

noasobi, no asobi 野遊 (のあそび) enjoying the fields and plains (outdoors)
..... nogake 野がけ（のがけ）(prayers in the moor)
People walked in the fields, collected the fresh green herbs of spring and prepared them for eating, thus participating of the life-giving power of spring.

kerun ケルン cairn
..... tsumiishi, tsumi-ishi 積石（つみいし）
Stones mounted on each other, to indicate the entrance of a mountain path or along the furt of a river.. . . CLICK here for Photos !

hokka 歩荷 transporting luggage
..... ボッカ
Especially in Hida and Shinshu, when the paths are too small for horsed to transport luggage, it was done by special porters. These mountain porters also worked as guides for mountain huts.

ohanabatake, o-hanabatake お花畠 (おはなばたけ)
fields of flowers in high mountains
..... お花ばたけ（おはなばたけ）
There are usually all kinds of colorful wild flowers blossoming on the slopes of high mountains in the short alpine summer.. . . CLICK here for Photos !

uesutonsai, uesuton sai ウェストン祭（うぇすとんさい）Weston Festival
First sunday in June.
At Kamikochi, in memory of Reverend Walter Weston (1861~1940)
He was a famous mountaineer and wroteMontaineering and Exploring in the Japanese Alps (1896).. . . CLICK here for Photos !

.................observance kigo for late summer

yamabiraki 山開き (やまびらき) "opening the mountain"
..... kaizansai 開山祭（かいざんさい）
Fujisan is on the first of June.
Tanigawadake 谷川岳 is on the first sunday of June.
Celebrations at the beginning of the mountain climbing season.

toake 戸開け（とあけ）"Opening the door"
at Mount Ominesan 大峰山 in Nara.
A festival of the yamabushi 山伏 mountain ascetics.
Third of May.. . . CLICK here for Photos !

In former times, most mountains were thought of as sacred and normal people were not allowed to climb the mountains.

This hokku is from a letter written on 4/19 (June 3) in 1798 by Issa when he was traveling around in western Honshu and the island of Shikoku, so it was probably written shortly before this date. In the last two or three weeks the mountains have become covered with leaves in different shades of green, since many of the new green leaves are glossy and wet-looking with a medium-green luster that will deepen to a darker green later in the summer. As the dawn sun rises its ruddy light lies on the mountains to the west, and the new leaves, many of them moist-looking, literally glisten as if they had been rinsed. At this moment perhaps spiritual purity also seemed possible to Issa. As Issa knew, in Japanese shamanism and Shinto people's hearts and minds are believed to be purified by the sight of the rising sun and dawn light, and perhaps in this hokku he hopes for spiritual insight amid the equally pure sunlight and new green leaves all around him. Amida Buddha is most commonly worshiped or meditated on as the sun goes down, since his Pure Land is in the west, while this hokku is about the first step in the sun's journey to the west. The hokku may well be about deep forms of spiritual purity.